Project Detail

Malcolm is a Little Unwell

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Synopsis

'Unwell' chronicles the descent into madness of award-winning BBC foreign correspondent Malcolm Brabant after he receives a routine yellow fever vaccine required for an assignment in Africa.
After enduring a near fatal fever, he begins hallucinating and starts to believe he is the new Messiah. During this Jesus complex, he believes he is being directed by the ghosts of dead friends who, like him, covered the siege of Sarajevo. The psychosis disappears after six weeks, but Brabant suffers several relapses. The most significant one is captured on camera by Brabant himself as he is convinced the Second Coming has to be on television.
This unique footage is supplemented by video diaries recorded by Brabant's Danish wife Trine Villemann, in order to document his transformation. Brabant's condition deteriorates and he spends months locked up in secure wards.
The film is a paean to love and family bonds and contains an unexpected Hollywood ending.

Details

Year: 2018
Type of project: Features
Running time: 78 mins
Format: Digital
Director: Malcolm Brabant, Trine Villeman 1st Feature
Producer: Trine Villemann
Editor: Malcolm Brabant
Screenwriter: Malcolm Brabant
Director of Photography: Malcolm Brabant
Sound: Peter Emmerson
Composer: Red Fog, Lukas Brabant
Principal cast: Malcolm Brabant, Trine Villemann, Lukas Brabant, Allan Little, David Willey, Thomas Middleboe, Diana Christensen, Lauri Ann Robertson.
Image 1 Notes: Brabant filmed himself during a relapse back into insanity. He believed the Second Coming had to be on television. This footage of this veteran foreign correspondent having a major meltdown is unique and gives a rare insight into mental illness.
Image 1 Notes: Malcolm Brabant in the woods next to a psychiatric hospital in Denmark on New Year's Eve 2011. On this day, he attempted to hang himself in his hospital room after voices in his head told him the world was going to end at the stroke of midnight, unless he committed suicide.